Monday, April 6, 2015

WEEKEND WRAP UP...A NEW QUILT AND EASTER CELEBRATIONS

I haven't posted in a full week and I have LOTS to post about, and very little time to get it done, lol, so I will have to be quick. And most of you know I don't do that very well with these, but I am going to try.

First of all, I am doing MUCH better! Yay! Not gone (how'd I love to say it was!) but soo much more workable. The pain is definitely very manageable now and I am very grateful. Let me just say this...I have had several surgeries over the last several years, and I live with arthritis every day pretty much everywhere in my body with two knees that I was told to replace 5 years ago, and yet I have never been in as much pain as I was with these Shingles. It was just kind of a nightmare. Perhaps if I had taken the nerve pain medication he told me too, or even a stronger regular pain med I wouldn't have suffered so, but I've told you why I didn't. All I can say is I live in horror of a repeat of this as I understand some people DO get it again. I am taking an immune booster supplement right now along with my regular supplements, and hopefully that will do the trick. In the meantime, I am getting a little better (pretty slowly, but still!) everyday, and I am very grateful for that. It will be 4 weeks in a couple of days, and enough is enough, lol.

We had a pretty busy week-end. Saturday hubby ran me by a couple of fabric stores as I am in the middle of making a rag quilt for the new baby, and needed a couple of things. I went back and forth as to rather or not I should, but I REALLY wanted to. I love the rag quilts for babies, and they make SUCH nice play quilts for them for quite a while. And since this was my gift to her I was free to make it any way I wanted to and in any color I wanted to as well. Well, that might have been TOO much freedom as honestly I had such a hard time deciding on what I wanted you wouldn't believe it. I debated on size, colors, style, size of blocks and on and on, lol. I knew I wanted to do some embroidery on it too. So after I finally settled on my colors and fabrics, I started there. I started with the embroidery blocks I was going to do at 8 x 8 inches, and then trimmed them down to 6 and half by 6 and a half when I was finished. All the other squares I cut at 6 and half from the start. First I decided to spell out her name. Don't know if I mentioned that they have FINALLY named her. She will be Claire. I LOVE it. They are not 100 percent on the middle name yet, but pretty sure it will be Elise. Anyway, I embroidered a letter on a square and trimmed them to size. Then I decided to add on some other embroidered squares and designed and made them up as well. Looking back I wish I had started with 10 by 10 and trimmed them to 8 x 8, but I was not about to start over so it is what it is now, lol. The other two fabrics that make up the quilt are a pretty pink and lavender and aqua type blue print, and a kitten fabric. I fussy cut all of the kitten fabric so pretty much all the squares had the same 3 kittens on them, and I loved the way it came out. Let me show you all of this....(by the way, ALL of the fabrics are soft flannels)

THE HEART DESIGN IS ONE MY MACHINE ALREADY HAS AND I THOUGHT IT LOOKED PRETTY HERE WHEN I ADDED TO JESUS LOVE ME. I DID ALL OF THE DESIGNS IN A WHITE THREAD, THOUGH TRUST ME I DEBATED ALL OVER THE PLACE AS TO RATHER OR NOT I SHOULD HAVE USED MORE COLOR, LOL

THOUGH THIS IS JUST PART OF A SCRIPTURE OF COURSE I LOVE THIS. I DECIDED AGAINST THE SCRIPTURE REFERENCES AS WELL, AS THERE REALLY WAS JUST NOT ENOUGH ROOM

LOVE THIS!

THOUGHT THIS WAS CUTE TOO!

CLOSE LOOK AT ONE OF THE LETTERS OF HER NAME

THE PRINTED SQUARE

HERE IS THE KITTEN SQUARE. SOO CUTE

Then it was onto how in the world to lay these block out for the quilt. I played and played with it for quite a while I am not going to lie, lol. I finally settled on the following, though I was short on the kitten squares and still needed to purchase some fabric for the backs of all the squares...Let me show you.

I THINK I AM REALLY GOING TO LIKE THIS!

JUST ANOTHER ANGLE. YOU CAN SEE ALL THE BLANK SPOTS I NEEDED FOR MORE CAT FABRIC!

I also debated way too much on the backing for this quilt too. I have 3 choices. A light pink fleece I already had, or a soft lavender Minky (though it is the kind with the dots which I don't think will work as well with quilting these squares) and a plain lavender flannel. I intend to make one square up of each before making my decision. I also decided to use a white flannel for the center of these blocks instead of batting, as I like the extra "fluff" it will give the rag quilt. And then, I think I might use a decorative stitch for quilting the squares together, but again I will try it out and decide. Sooo this is what I should be doing right now, lol.

After our fabric shopping we went and saw the movie Woman in Gold. It was nice to be on a relaxing time and we both LOVED the movie. I would highly recommend it if you like that type of a movie.

Our Easter Sunday was just perfect! We went down to San Diego to church and honestly the message was SOOO good it would be hard to describe. He was definitely anointed by the Holy Spirit and several gave their lives to the Lord yesterday. Seeing the young men who went forward moved many of us to tears. This mama prayed for him all the way through as before service he told me he was sick. He had a sore throat and felt achy and honestly by the end his voice was going. But he made it and I am sure the Lord kept His hand on him. After church we visited with them for a short while, but then we left. They were having Easter dinner with Larissa's family and we headed over to Joe's house for ours. My other son John and Jessica met us there as did my sister Diane and her family as well. It was just SUCH a nice day. The weather couldn't have been more perfect at 72 degrees and a wonderous cool breeze blowing. It actually got a little chilly late in the day and we went indoors, but enjoyed a nice long time out in their huge backyard on the patio as the kids ran around and played, and the adults males all played some basketball. Dinner was DELICIOUS! There was ham and pulled pork sandwhiches, chips, potato and macaroni salads, deviled eggs, and mac and cheese. She also had some REALLY good cantaloupe as well. And then we celebrated my little Jeffie's eleventh birthday which is today! How I love this little guy and can't believe he is already 11 years old.

Tomorrow is my youngest son's 35th birthday! Where in the world does time get to anymore? This seems impossible. I need to get off of here and get busy on that quilt as I think I am just going to head on out to Melody's in a couple of weeks, and I have MUCH to do before then. I hope she makes it that long. She is getting pretty miserable and has LOTS of braxton hicks contractions every day. How grateful I am for every day that she carry's that baby. Hope you all have a GOOD week, and enjoyed your week-ends as much as I did. Blessings to you all Debbie....Oh, have to leave you with a few pictures of my cuties...

LUKE AND SAM ON THE SATURDAY BEFORE EASTER...SOO CUTE. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM...IT'S BEEN TOO LONG!

JD AND VINNY,. HOW CUTE ARE THEY? VINNY HAD A NEW WOUND ON HIS NOSE, AND CUPCAKE ON HIS FACE AND HE IS STILL DARLING!

7 comments:

Do glad that you are starting to see the light at the end of the Shingles tunnel. Hallelujah! Your Easter sounded very pleasant and it's always good to see the grands. They sure do grow up fast. Love the blanket for Claire. I love that some of the old-fashioned names are making a comeback!

I am so glad you are doing so much better now. Shingles are so bad. I am glad you were able to do as much as you did this weekend. It looks like you had a wonderful day with everyone. I love the quilt. My next to youngest grand daughter is named Claire. I just love that name. I am so glad you are doing so much better. It was a lovely day yesterday, couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather.Have a great week Debbie.

Hi there dear friend, So glad you are beginning to feel a little better-I had them(I think I told you)and it lasted for a long time-even after the blisters were gone, they pain was still there. I always tell hubby he should get a shot-it is just no fun! Loved hearing about your Easter and seeing the photos. Your sewing is so nice, Mel will be so happy with the blanket. Feel better dear one!Hugs, Noreen

Oh my heart is smiling to hear how you're feeling so much better. I think I, too, would be heading out - just in case. That way you'll be sure to be there when that sweet baby comes. Wow, look how big those two boys of Mel's have gotten ... and of course all your grandkids are adorable. That quilt is so sweet ... I can't wait to see it finished.

So happy to hear that you are traveling the road toward recovery!! It's been quite the journey, hasn't it?! Your Easter weekend sounds delightful! And that new grandbaby will be here so soon...I know you're all getting soooo excited!